Min Kim LitComics

Maus was truly an emotional reading that I haven't experienced in a while. I felt the emotions, the relationships, and the reality of World War 2 as if I were being told the story directly in person. I appreciated that Spiegelman even goes into the troubles of describing Vladek and his relationship with him as accurately possible. He made the characters feel alive and real even though all of them were depicted as animals. I think it makes it easier for us to identify the races of the characters and therefore not spend time distracted, trying to figure out what race any of them are. He depicted even the hardships and trauma he had to deal with of guilt, personal conflicts and I related to his struggle of creating something he hasn't experienced it himself. Despite this hardship, i think he gruelingly detailed out the horror and misery people went through with rigorous research and interview with his father. I like that he doesn't try to hide anything from the readers and acc...

This week I read Zap Comix and Arcade. I found most of them to have narratives and style that I have not encountered a lot before. Some of them had non linear storytelling and many had many graphic and explicit contents. I think it offers a different experience compared to previous comic books and comic strips, not only because it offers adult exclusive content but it experiments and questions a lot about what we know. Some comics makes me uncomfortable because it doesn't resolve the craving for typical narrative that I am used to but rather ends in an unexpected way before I know it. While each comic seems random and vague, I think they influenced graphic novels of the future with the way narratives could be told and the potential of storytelling. While some comics had a comic style of drawing, some had beautiful detailed drawings with beautiful illustrations. I especially thought that Arcade had striking visuals that really started to feel more graphic novel than comic. It is i...

Last week I read on Contract with God by Will Eisner. I did not know what I was getting into when I started the first story of the book, and I was really fascinated with the dark and rich visuals and storytelling. Eisner coined the term "graphic novel" and it really takes an interesting turn on perception of visual narratives. He believed that the notion that people had about how comics are meant for younger generation is wrong and told a story that was dark and deep for adults. I deeply appreciate his ideology that visuals are not only just for kids, but is deep and complex enough to be its own literacy. I can see how words have existed for centuries so people had time to study and develop it into complex organized structure, and pictures only started to develop its structures fairly recently. I think today we have much more understanding of design and visual storytelling because of people like Eisner. Through this experience I have learned that I am really thankful to have ...